


an offshoot of memory

by lady_peony



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: Gen, Implied Relationships, M/M, Manga Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 23:24:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14199897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_peony/pseuds/lady_peony
Summary: No one could accuse Matoba Seiji of being a sentimental person.





	an offshoot of memory

**Author's Note:**

> inspired by events from the manga chapters 94 (and 92 and 93 respectively), so read accordingly.

Once, he could read Shuuichi's face as easily as one could open a window and read the weather. A red sky for rain; Shuuichi's expression, the dip between his brows and his lips pinched together, for displeasure, though he tried to conceal it.

Seiji licked the remains of juice from the corner of his lips. "How was it?" he said.

Shuuichi's face smoothed out. More resignation, not displeasure. A drop of sweat trickled from Shuuichi's temple, slipping down. It was hot, even in early summer, and the walk here had not been brief. "I suppose even for things this small, they can't always come out even." He leaned forward, his elbows resting on the top of the gate in front of them. 

Seiji tilted his head towards the sky, said carefully, "The old trees here produce rather _small_ fruit, don't they?"

Yorishima looked down on them both, an elbow resting on a knot in the bark, his feet braced between a wide wedge formed by the branches. He didn't frown, but it didn't look like he fully believed what Seiji was saying.

"You wanted to try one more, then?"

Shuuichi had swallowed his bite of loquat, turned towards Seiji and raised a questioning brow. "Wouldn't that be impolite?" Shuuichi said, only just loud enough so Seiji could hear and not Yorishima in the trees.

Yorishima called out a warning, and a cluster of orange sailed into Seiji's open hand. 

"Too late," Seiji said. A quick turn of the wrist, and one of the loquats separated from the cluster.

"This one." A perfect color, the orange melting into a reddish glaze near one end. Seiji knocked his arm into Shuuichi's. "This one."

"All right, all right. If you couldn't finish all of these, you shouldn't have asked for more." Shuuichi brought up his hand, waiting.

His fingers were longer than Shuuichi's, he noticed, his index finger resting almost above Shuuichi's wrist, his thumb by the side of Shuuichi's palm. The skin of the loquat between their hands was warm, summer-ripe.

Seiji lifted his hand away.

Shuuichi looked at the loquat for a moment, and raised it to his mouth, teeth sinking easily past the thin skin. 

Seiji watched Shuuichi's face while he ate, wondering — was this one sweeter, than his first?

"What happened next?"

"Next?" Seiji blinked, slow. That's right. The boy standing next to him currently was Natsume, not Natori. What was it he had meant to say before? "It would be irrelevant." After, after, what happened after was irrelevant.

_He stopped speaking with me, so I —_

_I stopped speaking to him, so he —_

The loquat he had tasted today. Had been delicious. As delicious as it was back then.

Natsume looked at him sideways, looked as if he had another question he wanted to ask.

"Natsume! Are you ready to leave, now?"

Oh. That voice was one he knew. 

It was easy, even without seeing the face.

"I'm on my way, Natori-san!" Natsume called back. He looked at Seiji. "Well, good-bye Matoba-san." And with a nod, he jogged off. Seiji knew very well the direction he was going towards.

(You wanted to try one more, then?)

_Don't._

_Don't turn around._

Seiji opened his hand. Watched brown seeds tumble off his palm — one, two, three — dropping into the river below.

**Author's Note:**

> i owe my thanks to this [chapter 94 summary of the manga](https://apta-scans.tumblr.com/post/172532327479/natsume-yuujinchou-the-house-that-was-left) where we learn that matoba and natori canonically picked loquats together when they were young. you're welcome.


End file.
